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VMware Site Recovery Manager has been the enterprise standard for orchestrated disaster recovery for nearly two decades. Deployed in tens of thousands of organisations as the DR automation layer between primary and secondary vSphere environments, SRM manages failover runbooks, replication orchestration, and recovery plan testing in a way that no native vSphere capability replaces. Broadcom knows this. And the post-acquisition SRM renewal strategy reflects it precisely: bundle SRM into VCF, inflate the unit cost, and present migration to VMware Live Site Recovery (the SaaS replacement) as the only alternative to accepting a 150–400% price increase.
If you are running SRM 8.x on perpetual licences and facing a renewal conversation with Broadcom, this article covers your actual options — including third-party support, which the vast majority of Broadcom's account teams will tell you doesn't exist for SRM. It does.
VMware SRM Version Timeline and Support Status
| SRM Version | Release | General Support End | Technical Guidance End | Status 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SRM 5.5 / 5.8 | 2013–2014 | Sep 2018 | Sep 2020 | End of Life |
| SRM 6.0 / 6.1 / 6.5 | 2015–2017 | Mar 2020 – Nov 2022 | Mar 2022 – Nov 2024 | End of Life |
| SRM 8.1 / 8.2 | 2019–2020 | Oct 2022 – Oct 2023 | Oct 2024 – Oct 2025 | End of Life / TG |
| SRM 8.3 / 8.4 | 2020–2021 | Oct 2023 – Mar 2024 | Oct 2025 – Mar 2026 | Technical Guidance |
| SRM 8.5 / 8.6 | 2022–2023 | Oct 2024 – Oct 2025 | Oct 2026 – Oct 2027 | General / Technical Guidance |
| SRM 8.7 (pre-acquisition final) | 2023 | Nov 2025 | Nov 2027 | General Support (to Nov 2025) |
Technical Guidance = no new patches, no new security fixes. Equivalent to Sustaining Engineering. Broadcom still charges perpetual support rates.
Broadcom's SRM Renewal Pressure Playbook
Broadcom's approach to SRM renewals follows a predictable pattern. If you are running SRM on perpetual licences and the subscription renewal is coming up, you will likely encounter one or more of the following:
- VCF bundle requirement. Broadcom's preferred outcome is for SRM customers to purchase VMware Cloud Foundation, which bundles SRM (as "VMware Site Recovery") with vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and Aria. VCF pricing has increased 189–340% per core vs pre-acquisition perpetual licence rates for most environments. SRM functionality is subsumed into a bundle you are being asked to pay for in full.
- VMware Live Site Recovery upsell. Broadcom's SaaS DR product is presented as the "modern" replacement for on-premise SRM. VMware Live Site Recovery is a per-VM subscription priced at approximately $6–$12 per VM per month. For an environment protecting 500 VMs, this represents $36,000–$72,000 per year in DR subscription costs alone — typically 2–4× the cost of the pre-acquisition SRM perpetual licence support.
- "End of support" urgency creation. Broadcom sales teams routinely conflate Technical Guidance (no new patches) with "end of support." They are not the same. Technical Guidance still entitles you to reactive support tickets and access to existing patches. Third-party support can fill the gap for new patches and security remediations.
- Perpetual licence validity challenges. Some Broadcom account teams have questioned whether pre-acquisition perpetual SRM licences remain valid post-acquisition. They do. Perpetual licences are a legal contract between the licensee and VMware Inc. (now a Broadcom subsidiary). The licence transfer does not extinguish perpetual rights. See our detailed analysis in the VMware Perpetual Licence Rights article.
SRM Renewal Coming Up?
If your Broadcom SRM renewal is within 6 months, contact us now. We'll model your TPS cost, confirm your perpetual licence rights, and provide a proposal you can use in renewal negotiations.
Get SRM Assessment →SRM Support Cost Model: Broadcom vs Third-Party
| Environment Size | VMs Protected | Broadcom SnS (est.) | VMware Live SR (SaaS) | GoVendorFree TPS | TPS Saving vs SnS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 50–150 VMs | £42,000 | £36,000–£72,000 | £17,000 | 60% |
| Mid-size | 150–500 VMs | £110,000 | £90,000–£180,000 | £44,000 | 60% |
| Large | 500–2,000 VMs | £290,000 | £360,000–£720,000 | £110,000 | 62% |
| Enterprise | 2,000+ VMs | £680,000+ | £1.4M–£2.8M | £252,000 | 63% |
Broadcom SnS based on pre-VCF perpetual renewal rates. VMware Live Site Recovery based on $6–$12/VM/month. TPS rates are indicative — exact quotes provided after licence review.
What GoVendorFree TPS Covers for SRM
Third-party support for VMware SRM provides comprehensive coverage of the SRM stack — including the components Broadcom's Technical Guidance tier no longer supports with new fixes:
- SRM Server (all 8.x versions) — application-layer incidents, configuration issues, service failures, and upgrade path guidance
- SRM Appliance (SRVA) — virtual appliance deployment, certificate management, and PSC/vCenter integration issues
- Storage Replication Adapters (SRAs) — SRA compatibility, vSphere Replication integration, and array-specific adapter issues (EMC, NetApp, HPE, Pure Storage, etc.)
- vSphere Replication (VR) — replication engine support, RPO monitoring, replication health, and failback procedures
- Recovery Plan management — plan execution troubleshooting, IP customisation scripts, and pre/post-failover script execution issues
- Test failover issues — isolated network testing, snapshot management during test, and test cleanup procedures
- vCenter integration — SRM-vCenter connectivity, single sign-on, and multi-vCenter topology support
- Security patches and CVE remediation — GoVendorFree engineers assess and produce patches for critical CVEs where Broadcom's Technical Guidance tier provides no new fixes
- Platform interoperability — certification of new vSphere, ESXi, and vCenter versions against supported SRM versions
Your Four Strategic Options for SRM in 2026
① Third-Party Support (Recommended)
Switch to GoVendorFree TPS. 60–65% cost reduction. Full SRM stack coverage including SRAs, vSphere Replication, and recovery plan support. No VCF mandate. No SaaS subscription. Your DR architecture remains on your terms.
② Continue Broadcom SnS / VCF
Accept Broadcom's renewal at current or VCF pricing. Appropriate only if you are planning a vSphere-wide VCF migration and SRM is genuinely bundled value. Not recommended as a standalone cost management strategy for SRM.
③ Migrate to VMware Live Site Recovery
Broadcom's SaaS DR product. Best fit for cloud-first organisations with small to mid-size VM estates. Per-VM subscription costs are typically 2–4× higher than pre-acquisition SRM costs for large deployments. Not viable for cost-sensitive or data-sovereignty environments.
④ Replace with Alternative DR Platform
Zerto (HPE), Veeam DR Orchestrator, Cohesity SiteContinuity, and RecoverPoint all provide SRM-equivalent DR orchestration. Migration requires re-documentation of recovery plans but avoids perpetual Broadcom dependency. TPS bridges the gap during migration.
Free Download: VMware/Broadcom Survival Guide
Our 56-page guide covers SRM, vSphere, NSX, Horizon, and VCF pricing — with negotiation tactics, perpetual licence rights analysis, and TPS migration process.
Download Free →Sector-Specific SRM Considerations
Financial Services and Insurance
Financial services firms running SRM for regulatory DR requirements (PRA SS2/19, EBA DORA, APRA CPS 232) need demonstrable DR testing capability and documented RTO/RPO commitments. GoVendorFree TPS maintains this capability. VMware Live Site Recovery introduces cloud egress latency that may compromise RTO commitments for latency-sensitive workloads. Regulatory DR documentation remains intact under TPS.
Healthcare and NHS
NHS trusts and healthcare organisations using SRM for clinical system DR (EPR, PACS, laboratory systems) cannot easily migrate to cloud-based DR due to clinical data sovereignty requirements and network bandwidth constraints between sites. SRM TPS keeps on-premise DR viable without the cost of VCF or cloud subscription models.
Manufacturing and Critical Infrastructure
Manufacturing organisations with OT/IT convergence in their DR scope — where the recovery plan includes SCADA and MES systems running on virtualised infrastructure — need SRM's granular recovery plan scripting. VMware Live Site Recovery's SaaS model introduces internet dependency that is incompatible with air-gapped or restricted-connectivity OT environments.
Running SRM in a Regulated Environment?
We'll review your DR architecture, confirm TPS feasibility, and provide a proposal with regulatory compliance documentation within five working days.
Request DR Architecture Review →Transitioning SRM to Third-Party Support
SRM TPS transitions are straightforward because SRM is a well-defined product with clear licensing. The process takes three to five weeks:
- Weeks 1–2: SRM licence inventory, version confirmation, SRA compatibility review, and recovery plan scope documentation. GoVendorFree provides a detailed Support Scope Agreement covering all protected site pairs.
- Week 2: vSphere Replication review — RPO settings, replication health assessment, and known issue identification. Pre-TPS health check report provided.
- Weeks 3–4: Dual-running period — GoVendorFree support active, Broadcom contract still in force. Any incidents handled by GoVendorFree with response time SLA enforcement.
- Week 4–5: Broadcom contract termination. GoVendorFree becomes sole SRM support provider. Named engineer team assigned.
- Ongoing: Quarterly recovery plan test support, CVE patch assessment, SRA update guidance, and vCenter/ESXi interoperability reviews.